Reflections on the Source of Joy Curated texts by Dietrich Bonhoeffer for meditation during the Christmas season. “With God dwells joy, and down from God it comes, seizing mind, soul, and body; and where this joy has grasped a human being it spreads, it carries away, it bursts through closed doors.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a German pastor, theologian, ecumenist, and peace activist. The atrocities of the Nazi Regime compelled him to participate in a conspiracy that tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Hitler and install a new government that would end the war and those atrocities. Imprisoned during the last two years of his life, Bonhoeffer was executed just weeks before the end of the war.